As time passed bit by bit, the 24-hour countdown gradually reached zero.
The talent panel that Chen Luo had left open without closing now showed activity.
Previously, the talent panel had maintained a distance of at least 30-40 centimeters from Chen Luo's face—the optimal viewing distance.
But the moment the countdown reached zero, the panel subtly moved back more than half a meter, and then...
The talent panel slammed into Chen Luo's face, instantly shattering, while Chen Luo bolt upright as if waking from a nightmare.
"Holy shit, what happened?" Chen Luo, who had suddenly felt an extremely terrifying sense of palpitation for some reason, instantly woke from his sleep.
"What's wrong? Nothing happened?" The Herrscher of Sentience instantly appeared before Chen Luo, sitting on his bedside.
The scene now greatly resembled their first meeting.
Back then, the Herrscher of Sentience was lying in bed while Chen Luo sat bedside; now Chen Luo was lying in bed while the Herrscher of Sentience sat bedside.
"Nothing, probably just an illusion." Chen Luo touched his face and sighed in relief after finding no abnormalities, wounds, or pain.
Maybe he'd slept too long and had a nightmare?
After all, sleeping too long also feels particularly uncomfortable.
"How's your body now? Did the talent panel finish modifying your body? Any breathing difficulties?" Seeing Chen Luo seemed fine, the Herrscher of Sentience quickly asked.
"Has it been 24 hours already?" Chen Luo lay in bed looking at the sky outside the window.
It was around 4 PM, and the sky outside was still quite bright.
This made Chen Luo wonder if he'd really slept for 24 hours.
"Right, it's been 24 hours. During these 24 hours, you maintained the most even breathing state and optimal sleep quality. Of course, I could also slightly sense that your body strength seemed to be gradually decreasing." The Herrscher of Sentience said.
"You stayed by my side for 24 hours?" Chen Luo glanced at the Herrscher of Sentience with some surprise.
For the Herrscher of Sentience, staying nowhere else but in this house for 24 hours was indeed quite difficult for her.
"Of course! When I, the Herrscher of Sentience, promise something, I naturally keep my word. I didn't even go to the bar—though without you, the bar couldn't open anyway." The Herrscher of Sentience said quite proudly.
After all, no matter what, staying by someone's side for 24 hours and being noticed by them was something worth being happy about.
Silently sacrificing without saying anything couldn't be called foolish—it's just that children mostly want to receive praise from parents.
Let's be reasonable: what child, after helping with household chores, doesn't stand there holding a broom, head raised, waiting for parental praise?
"Honestly, you've moved me. You did absolutely wonderfully. Is there anything you'd like to eat? Or maybe go out shopping together? Or return to the Honkai world to stir up some trouble, maybe dismantle Schicksal?"
Hearing the Herrscher of Sentience's words, Chen Luo felt somewhat touched. Having spent considerable time with her, he knew how restless she was. Making her stay home for 24 hours, even spending long periods standing by his bed observing him, was truly difficult for her.
So it was quite normal for Chen Luo to want to give some reward.
As for why the last suggestion was about dismantling Schicksal—that's because Chen Luo thought it might make the Herrscher of Sentience happy.
Besides, Otto specifically sent people to capture him—this favor needed repaying when Chen Luo had time.
Also, to see if he could meet Otto and trigger a 5-star commission.
Chen Luo genuinely felt that given Otto's obsession with Kallen, triggering a 5-star commission was truly possible.
"For a reward... there actually is one. A'Luo, aren't you a puppeteer? Can you repair dolls?" After careful thought, the Herrscher of Sentience asked Chen Luo.
"Repairing dolls? Well, that depends on what kind of doll. If it's an ordinary doll, naturally it can be repaired. But if it's a human-like doll or an advanced one with self-awareness made from other materials, that would be somewhat difficult." Hearing that the Herrscher of Sentience actually had a wish, Chen Luo gave it serious thought.
Although Chen Luo might seem somewhat lacking based on this description, don't forget—he's only had the puppeteer class for a few days.
Not even a week yet.
Chen Luo hasn't even made a proper doll yet.
What Chen Luo can do as mentioned is thanks to his furniture mastery.
The puppeteer class sounds like a side class requiring significant investment of energy, so needing time to grow is normal.
"What about ELFs?" The Herrscher of Sentience added.
"ELFs?" Chen Luo was momentarily stunned.
Chen Luo wasn't unfamiliar with ELFs—he currently had an unhatched ELF pet egg in his inventory.
Chen Luo still hadn't figured out what to use to hatch this pet egg.
Actually, ELFs are products of the Previous Era.
Their formal name is "Equipment: Living Form"—autonomous weapons created by scientists from the Previous Era's Mu Continent to preserve humanity's combat strength.
In a sense, ELFs represent a combined form of dolls and artificial lifeforms, not merely dolls.
Klein was personally created by Mobius.
The technical expertise required to create ELFs is quite high, but it's not knowledge only a few possess.
Among the several ELFs and their creators Chen Luo knew were Klein's creator Mobius, and Book of Fuxi creators Fuxi and Nuwa.
Wait, Book of Fuxi...
"Senti, you want me to repair Book of Fuxi, do you?" When Chen Luo thought of Book of Fuxi and connected it to Fu Hua, a lightbulb went off in his mind.
Book of Fuxi was created by Fuxi and Nuwa to take care of Fu Hua's daily life.
"How did you know?" The Herrscher of Sentience was greatly surprised.
"Well, the only ELF I can think of related to you would be Book of Fuxi." Chen Luo said honestly.
"So can you repair Book of Fuxi or not?" The Herrscher of Sentience asked.
"Yes, of course, why couldn't I? Book of Fuxi isn't broken—its quality is excellent. It's just out of energy. Not only can I repair Book of Fuxi, even if you asked me to create one, I could barely make one if I had the materials." Chen Luo affirmed.
This wasn't just because Chen Luo's puppeteer skills had reached proficiency level.
Another reason was that the favorability gift from Mobius, [Mobius's Scalpel], came with a large bundle of professional skills.
Among them was artificial lifeform creation.
So if it's just repair, Chen Luo had no problems.
Chen Luo wasn't sure if the Mobius who came to his bar currently knew artificial lifeform creation, but Mobius's Scalpel did.
For example, Mobius's Meta-Morph surgery might not be very proficient yet—maybe only at skilled level—but Mobius's Scalpel came with mastery level.
In short, you might not believe it, but in some areas, Mobius's Scalpel might be even more powerful than Mobius herself.
This is probably the amazing thing about favorability gifts.
What's rather frustrating is that among the additional skills gifted with this favorability gift, all levels are only at mastery level.
Chen Luo didn't know if all favorability gifts were like this, or if it was just Mobius's favorability gift, or perhaps because his furniture mastery was only at mastery level.
Honestly, Chen Luo really hoped for some kind of skill upgrade stone to upgrade his furniture mastery to furniture grandmaster level.
"Really? You're not just boasting, are you? It's okay if you can't repair it—I won't mind." The Herrscher of Sentience looked at Chen Luo somewhat doubtfully.
Because Chen Luo had agreed too readily.
"Why would I lie to you? Even if you don't believe me, you should believe in furniture mastery, right? I really can repair ELFs. And even if I really couldn't, wouldn't I learn how by touching Book of Fuxi with my furniture mastery skill? Besides, Book of Fuxi is just out of power—adding some energy to it is really simple. Did you forget? Don't we have Honkai energy crystals?" Chen Luo rolled his eyes at the Herrscher of Sentience.
Chen Luo wasn't entirely sure what energy source Fuxi and Nuwa used when creating Book of Fuxi, but among all manufactured items in the Honkai world, Honkai crystals are truly universal energy sources.
As long as it's a weapon or item related to Honkai, using Honkai crystals can't go wrong.
Even if the specifications don't match, Chen Luo can adjust the Honkai crystals to make them match.
"Alright, I believe you." The Herrscher of Sentience nodded.
Because the Herrscher of Sentience knew that Chen Luo rarely exaggerated—in some ways, Chen Luo was quite honest.
[Ding! You have a new commission!]
[Repair Book of Fuxi]: Awaken Book of Fuxi, which has entered dormancy due to energy depletion, restoring its normal functionality.
Reward: 200 Primogems + Random reward.
Difficulty: 3-star
"A 3-star mission with the minimum Primogem reward." Chen Luo said while stroking his chin.
After completing so many missions, Chen Luo had figured out the upper and lower limits of rewards for missions of different star levels.
For example, the lower limit for 3-star missions is 200 Primogems; any lower would be a 2-star mission.
"What? Did I trigger a commission?" The Herrscher of Sentience asked curiously upon hearing Chen Luo's words.
Since there was nothing worth keeping secret from the Herrscher of Sentience, Chen Luo had spoken.
The Herrscher of Sentience didn't mind Chen Luo accepting her commission or think that given their relationship, a commission shouldn't be necessary.
Chen Luo's talent was meant to help fulfill wishes, so it was normal for him to complete requests when she had needs.
Moreover, given the relationship between the Herrscher of Sentience and Chen Luo, she would have liked to trigger a simple, easy-to-complete, high-reward advanced mission for him, but she really couldn't.
"Right, it's a 3-star mission with a 200 Primogem reward." Chen Luo said without hesitation.
"Only 200 Primogems?" The Herrscher of Sentience was even more dissatisfied than Chen Luo.
"It's not bad. I figure you didn't really want to awaken Book of Fuxi that much. The reason this mission reached 3-star level is because of its completion difficulty. After all, if restoring energy weren't so troublesome, Book of Fuxi wouldn't have been dormant since the Tang Dynasty until now without being awakened." Chen Luo complained.
Sometimes, there really can be huge gaps between worlds.
Awakening Book of Fuxi is essentially like changing batteries. While many people in the Previous Era might have been able to do this, very few in the current era know how.
If Chen Luo didn't have the puppeteer class, puppeteer stigmata, and Mobius's Scalpel, he wouldn't dare attempt this commission either.
Thus, poor Book of Fuxi has been sleeping all this time.
"But speaking of which, why do you want to revive Book of Fuxi?" Chen Luo couldn't help but ask.
"Secret! It's a secret. And you're not allowed to take the same mission from the old timer anymore, because it needs to be kept secret from her too." The Herrscher of Sentience said to Chen Luo.
"Got it, got it."
[Ding! You have a new commission!]
[Keep the Secret]
Reward: 100 Primogems
Difficulty: 2-star
Good grief—repairing Book of Fuxi only gives 200 Primogems, but a simple secret-keeping mission gives 100 Primogems. If you say reviving Book of Fuxi has nothing to do with Fu Hua, Chen Luo wouldn't believe it even if he died.
"That's good. And even if you tried, it might not work because the old timer might not even remember Book of Fuxi now." Seeing Chen Luo agree, the Herrscher of Sentience breathed a sigh of relief.
"This..." Chen Luo was momentarily stunned.
Thinking about it carefully, it made sense. Fu Hua's head had been damaged several times, often teetering on the edge of amnesia. What memories she still had now, even Fu Hua herself might not know.
Besides, while Chen Luo could accept duplicate missions from others without qualms, if the Herrscher of Sentience specifically requested it, he could forgo others' missions.
Primogems are very important, but they aren't everything.
"A'Luo, can you get up now?" The Herrscher of Sentience asked.
"Don't worry, even though I've been lying in bed for a day, I'm not sick or anything."
"That's good. Then let's go into the bar, and you can open an entrance to Nagazora for me. I need to return to Taixuan Mountain." The Herrscher of Sentience said.
Because Book of Fuxi should be in Taixuan Mountain right now.
Of course, it might also be in Fu Hua's hands, but the probability isn't high.
"Okay." Chen Luo nodded, then snapped his fingers to summon the bar door. After getting out of bed and putting on slippers, he walked in.
The bar is my home—it's fine not to wear shoes at home.
"Whoa, what's going on?" As soon as Chen Luo entered his bar, he saw a figure slumped over a table, unknown whether alive or dead.
"Mona, what's wrong? Mona, wake up! No! Mona!!!" Chen Luo instantly remembered what he had forgotten.
He had forgotten to prepare food for Mona.
Poor·Mona·Poor
Could she have starved to death?